Coverage of the visit and that of three cabinet members over the weekend, as well as comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the shrine and Japan’s wartime behavior featured very heavily across all South Korean media, as well as earning widespread condemnation from politicians and newspaper columnists.

Much of Wednesday’s commentary focused on remarks Mr. Abe reportedly made on Tuesday in reference to a 1995 statement by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama that apologized for Japan’s colonization of South Korea from 1910 to 1945. Mr. Abe has previously said he would consider revising the statement.

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“The definition of what constitutes aggression has yet to be established in academia or in the international community,” Mr. Abe said on Tuesday, according to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. “Things that happened between nations will look differently depending on which side you view them from.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, asked about the remarks before leaving for a trip to Beijing, said Mr. Abe should be a “responsible leader with a correct understanding of history.” Mr. Yun earlier canceled a scheduled trip to Tokyo in response to the visit to Yasukuni by the Japanese cabinet members.

Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest circulation paper, quoted an international relations expert who said that if Japan argues it wasn’t an invasion, Hitler’s aggression towards Poland wasn’t an invasion either. The newspaper also profiled Mr. Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso’s previous comments on historical issues.

Reaction to events in Japan was also seen in social media.

“Japanese Prime Minister Abe, this is the 21st century, please come back to your senses. One mistake is enough. Japan should now join the world peace and stop distorting history”, Twitter user Yi Jae-oh wrote.

North Korea also chimed in, offering a typically colorful response via a dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency.

“The venomous roots of militarism struck at Yasukuni Shrine will stretch out like a serpent to the whole Japanese society and swallow it up,” it said.